Category Archives: Fiction

All this movie stuff has gotten me thinking about publishing again. It’s not that I don’t want to, I’ve just been busy. I have a number of practically finished stories that just need a little massaging. Hopefully, I’ll be able to publish some new stuff sometime in the near-ish future.

In the meantime, I haven’t done a sale in a long time, so I decided to put my books on sale. Some are on a countdown, others are free! Links below.

Share this:

Like this:

As she lay there, head on his chest, she heard the soft whirl of his artificial heart. She could hear the mechanical sound of blood being pushed from one chamber to another via the automated valves.

As she listened, she realized how much she missed the sound his heart used to make. The swoosh of a muscle slightly out of rhythm and the click it made at the end of a beat as it struggled to move the blood from one side to the other. The sound that indicated a defect that nearly took his life.

She was grateful for his new heart and his continued health. Yet there was something about prosthetic which made her feel uneasy. Beyond anything else, she concluded that it must be the way it functioned. It was smooth and calculated. It was an even system unmatched by even the healthiest of hearts.

This new organ kept secrets She missed the way her touch used to cause his heart to race and then listening to it pound and eventually calm after they had been intimate. She used to be able to read him by listening to that heart. Now, she could only guess at what he was feeling.

He placed a hand under her chin and lifted her face to his. At first, she avoided eye contact, feeling guilty for her thoughts and irrationally worried that he’d somehow developed an ability to read her mind.

She couldn’t look away forever, and the longer she tried, the worse she felt. She met his gaze and peered deep. As she met his eyes, she instantly knew that he had no inkling of her longing.

The longer she looked, the more she realized she didn’t need his heart to tell her what he felt. She had his eyes. Were those to ever be in question, she had his touch. She had the soft breath from his mouth on her cheek. She had a sensation that she couldn’t quite name. A warmth that projected from him to her. A sense of calm and love that could only be felt with the deepest parts of her.

He leaned and kissed her mouth sweetly. She let the emotion overwhelm her until her heart was racing enough for the both of them.

Share this:

Like this:

I was looking at stock photos, and I happened across this one. And the first thing that went through my mind was: that’s Kara from my novel Otherworlders. Or at least pretty close. Of course, as with any story, the reader tends to imagine what’s right for them and their interpretation of the story. Which, in my opinion, is the best way to read. But this is a little peak at what was going through my head when I envisioned her (even though I found this long after).

Share this:

Like this:

This week, I was challenged to write a story in only 100 words. That’s 10x less than a normal flash fiction. Here’s what I came up with:

Kade stood in the shadows. It was uncomfortable, but the situation demanded he be outside during the day.
His son was graduating. And while he would never know Kade had been there, it was important for Kade to say goodbye, even if from a far.
“He’ll be alright.”
“I know. And I know I can’t walk in that world anymore.”
“Exactly. You’re not human. You’re beyond it. You’d only put them at risk.”
Kade took one last look at his former life.
“Goodbye, son.”
He turned around. With the quickness of cat, he turned into one, and rushed away.

***If you are interested in reading more, please email or message me. I’m still looking for a few more beta readers. ***

Ava straightened my bow-tie and I couldn’t help but laugh. The accessory was made of lab-grown leopard hide, and dyed bright green. It was meant to be seen, and nothing called attention to it like wearing it askew. But I let her fix it anyway. It was only after she had messed with it that I realized she was untying it.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

She smiled at me. Her skin looked so smooth that I crapped my pants since she had started taking the Sir2 gene therapy.

“Helping you look more ridiculous,” she said.

She pulled at it so that one side lay longer than the other. I studied her alteration in the mirror. She was right, I looked downright silly. But, that was the point. While all of our other affairs this season had been serious ones, tonight was a special event. It was the farewell party, an end of season tradition. Over the years, it had grown in it’s ridiculousness. It began as just serious a party as any other, more even. But once everyone began trying to out do each other, the whole thing quickly became a parody of itself. Rather than admit what had happened, we embraced it, and a theme party was born.

Ava wore a low cut dress with a train that swept the ground. The gown was bedazzled along it’s length with Swarovski crystals. She wrapped herself in a black snake-skin cape. I put on my matching fedora and we headed out to the car.

Most nights we’d take our own. But seeing as this was a special occasion, the host arranged to have everyone picked up by limo. Automobiles were all self-driving, so the addition of a driver was unnecessary. He got out and opened the doors for us. Again, something the car could have easily done itself. We climbed in, and I was surprised when he came in after us. I naturally assumed he’d be sitting in the front.

He didn’t say a word at first. I was just about to ask him what his job was, when he beat me to the punch. He pulled out a collapsible guitar, assembled it, and began to play. He started his set with Ava’s favorite song. It was slow and sweet, and sounded fantastic acoustically. I watched her with delight as she took pleasure in the serenade. It wasn’t until he began the second song, another by the same artist, that I realized he was that artist. Our host had arranged for each of their guests to be entertained by their favorite musician.

Only four songs had been played by the time the car pulled into the long driveway. There was a mass of paparazzi standing at the property’s edge. They jockeyed for position as they tried to see who was in the car. They couldn’t legally step foot inside the property lines unless they were invited. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for their drone cameras. They began flying around the car.

The cameras didn’t bother me. At this point in my career, the more publicity I had, the better. And a piece of me liked the attention.

I disabled the tinted glass. A few drones stayed on us, but most flew back to their owners.

The car let us out. I assumed that the artist would get out and join the party as well, but he remained in the car. As we walked up the silver plated walkway, I was able to get a better look at the house. I had stayed in smaller hotels. The path was lined with ice sculptures that increased in size. The first were a pair of polar bear cubs sitting on either side of the walkway. Next, there was a couple, larger than real people, who were holding their hands over our heads. We ducked through quickly to avoid getting dripped on. In this heat, these sculptures wouldn’t last long. The statues closest to the porch were still being worked on. A giant Zeus stood looming on the left, his lighting bolt in hand, ready to smite whomever incurred his wrath. On the right, a sculptor was carving out the features of a woman. My first guess was Hera, since she was Zeus’ wife. But based on the provocative posture, I decided it must be Aphrodite.

The sculpture carved a piece of ice, threw his chainsaw in the air, turned in a circle, and caught it as it came tumbling down. He carved another swipe, kicked one leg in the air, and ducked his head and the saw in a swooping motion. The blade was mere centimeters from his face. He came back up, and worked some more. Ava was enchanted with his flare. I had to remind her that we hadn’t even gotten to the party, yet. Continue reading →

As she lay in the grass above the abandoned bridge, she followed the distant helicopter with her binoculars. She knew that she had two options. She could either sprint down to the bridge and scream out to it, or let it pass and hope she went unnoticed. The bridge had a gap in the center that was free of cars, and big enough to fit a helicopter. There weren’t any suspension cables or things to impede it’s landing or take off. And with limited access on two sides, and water on the other two, it would be the ideal spot to get picked up.

Just a few months ago, her course of action would have been clear. She would have laid as still as possible and pray that they didn’t see her. Continue reading →